Inside Jeff Bezos' $84.9 billion empire

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is roughly $4 billion away from becoming the wealthiest man alive. Bezos is currently worth $84.9 billion, thanks to his 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock and his broad portfolio of investments.

The most recent addition to Amazon's universe is Whole Foods, which the company made a $13.7 billion bid for earlier this month. The grocer is by far Bezos' largest purchase. His second largest acquisition was in 2009, when Amazon purchased online shoe merchant Zappos for a measly-by -comparison $1.2 billion.

The Whole Foods acquisition is not the first time Bezos has attempted to disrupt the grocery industry. In 1999, Amazon invested in a grocery delivery service called HomeGrocer.com. The company crumbled during the dot-com meltdown, but many of his other investments have led to huge success.

Michael Tullberg | Getty Images

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos

In 1998, Bezos became one of Google's earliest investors with a $1 million investment in the search giant. According to Crunchbase, he has also personally invested in tech companies like Uber, Airbnb and Everfi. Bezos also makes personal investments through venture capital vehicle Bezos Expeditions, which has backed impressive companies across a wide range of industries, including Twitter and Juno Therapeutics.

These strategic investments, on top of the massive success of Amazon, have helped Bezos climb his way up the list of wealthiest people alive. This infographic, created by Visual Capitalist, breaks down Bezos' ever-expanding empire: